


Winter Moon

by SunFallDown



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Blood, Fluff, M/M, Magic-Users, Minor Injuries, Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 20:54:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9022177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunFallDown/pseuds/SunFallDown
Summary: Yahaba Shigeru has an oath as a medic to always lend help to those in need. Well, that oath just got him a bit of a weird situation at home with this specific patient called Kentarou.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! Long story short, I’m participating in various secret santas, one of them is the [Haikyuu!! SS](http://hqss2016.tumblr.com/) in tumblr, and now it’s time for posting my thingies! Here’s the first one: With a lot of holidays love, I want to dedicate this fic to [cool-suga](http://cool-suga.tumblr.com/) and give you my thanks for giving me the chance of writing a fantasy AU.
> 
> So! A few specifications about this: The magic in this universe is heavily based on Final Fantasy magic, so in case you don’t know how it works:  
>  **\- White magic:** Heals wounds, illnesses and curses.  
>  **\- Black magic:** Controls elements and is used to destroy.  
>  **\- Green magic:** Enhaces the caster’s power OR undermines a target’s.
> 
> That said, please enjoy and happy holidays!

“Hey there Yahaba,” Hajime greeted. “What can I do for you today?”

“Hello, Iwaizumi,” Shigeru answered. “I have a… bit of a major need.”

“Is that so? And? What is it?”

“Meat.” Shigeru was wearing a deadpan expression. “I need meat. Like… tons of it. Imagine I was about to give a banquet for thirty really over-masculine men, calculate how much meat I would need for that and sell it to me.”

Hajime was surprised for a second. It wasn’t usual to see Shigeru so… well, like this? He seemed tired, worn out, and his eyes not only were glassy and seemed to stared into space, they also had bags under them. Hajime got a bit worried and asked what was wrong, but…

“A long story. A really… really long story. I will tell it to you one day,” was that’s the answer he got from Shigeru.

“Okay then. But remember, you can always come to me if you need help.”

“Yes, thank you. But in the meanwhile, meat.”

With that, Hajime went into the back of the store. Behind a heavy wooden door, a room with multiple runes written along the walls hid different types of animal meat. There was beef, pork, turkey, and other spare rare kinds of meat, like the basilisk meat that only Hajime’s store sold (and was the reason why his grocery store was popular among the upper class). Everything was perfectly preserved by the constant Blizzard the runes casted.

Hajime took some of the already cut pieces of meat he had in store. Since Shigeru hadn’t specified which kind of meat he wanted, he prepared a basket with the least greasy parts of the beef, chicken and turkey, which were more traditional and not too hard on the stomach. It wasn’t that usual that Shigeru would ask for meat. Every now and then, yes, but Hajime knew him enough to know about that he preferred alternative protein sources.

Though, in the end, it was none of his concern. Hajime didn’t have to question it.

With the basket ready, Hajime headed back to the front of the store, gave the price and Shigeru paid right away. Shigeru seemed in a hurry when he took the basket and fast-walked his way out of Hajime’s store.

All of that didn’t ring too well. Hajime decided he would ask about it next time Shigeru came by.

* * *

The cold season had started a while ago. Shigeru had chosen a light scarf along with his white shawl to fight off the wind, but it had proven quite unuseful once he was outside. A chill ran down his spine, and for a moment he thought _“How nice would it be if I could cast a simple Fire to keep myself warm”_ …. but it was impossible for him. Shigeru was a white magus, after all. Be it casting Fire during winter to warm up, or Blizzard during summer to refresh, he was unable of doing so.

White magi were the people that collected the force of the world around them, transformed it, and casted it into energy of light. Able to heal wounds and illnesses, dispel curses, ease the pain and save what could have been lost, white magi were cherished around the world as medics, but looked down upon by the ones who could cast black magic. Black magi were the ones who could bring the storm onto the stage, the ones who could cast the elements and use them to their advantage in battle. Black magi were the ones who had to be feared on a battle, and so, they were considered more powerful.

There were variations and combinations, of course. Namely, Red magi, the ones who could cast both the healing light and the elements of war. Or Rune magicians, who could order reality to bend through their words. Magic champions too, who used magic as a secondary element to their weapons. And, of course, animagi, who could become one with nature, among lots of others.

Shigeru had the luck to become a white magus. Though his power wasn’t mighty enough to become one of the cherished military medics, he felt comfortable and proud of being the most important healer this town had. Working as the head of the hospital in town, medics, both human and magi, followed his orders cleanly, saving multiple lives from their fatal destinies. To put it somehow.

It was a nice, comfortable life…

Okay, let’s be real, there were some things that made Shigeru want to quit and, I don’t know, live under a rock. And one of those reasons was waiting for him at home.

* * *

Back at home, he didn’t know what to expect, but it sure as hell wasn’t it to find a blond figure on seiza at his front door, waiting patiently for him to come back. For a moment there, it could have been even a bit cute, to have someone waiting for him. Living alone meant not having a feeling of coming back to someone. But then Shigeru realized how Kentarou’s sight was only focused on the basket he was carrying, and the cute part was gone. Kentarou was only there because he was hungry.

“Did you bring meat?” Kentarou asked right off the bat.

“A ‘welcome back’ would be good from time to time,” Shigeru sighed. “And yes, I brought meat.”

“Can I have some?”

“No.” Shigeru said without a second to lose. “If you eat raw meat you’ll get ill and then I’ll have to heal you, only for you to eat raw meat again and getting ill again and keep on repeating the cycle. I’m going to cook it. So wait.”

Kentarou nodded and kept sitting where he was. Shigeru entered the house, leaving the door open just in case Kentarou wanted to go inside too. Though, Kentarou didn’t move. From the basket, he switched his attention from the basket of meat to a butterfly that was landing on the flowers outside the house. And remained still.

Shigeru, as for himself, turned on the stove and started preparing the meal. In the end, he didn’t have as much meat as he had asked for (Hajime had not given him enough to feed a whole banquet of carnivorous men), but it was enough for a week. Without any Fire to cast, he needed about an hour to have the beef ready, along with some side dishes like tomato salad, rice, scrambled eggs, and his personal touch, blueberry sauce that could go good with everything.

He called Kentarou to eat and the boy didn’t waste any time in running right to the table. As Shigeru served the meal, Kentarou digged quickly into the beef, eating so fast anyone would think he hadn’t eaten in weeks.

“Slow down,” Shigeru scolded him. “You’re going to choke if you keep eating so fast.”

Kentarou glared at him. It was one a _“Leave me alone”_ kind of glare. And Shigeru glared right back at him. A clear _“You have anything to say?”_ challenge in his gaze. It’s not like Kentarou scared Shigeru. Like, at all.

They stared at each other for a moment… until Kentarou lowered then his eyes. Slowing down his pace, he started eating at a proper speed. Satisfied, Shigeru went back at his own meal. This time, Shigeru had won. 

 _'Good, good,’_ Shigeru thought.

* * *

“So…” Hajime began. “Basically, a friend of yours is crashing at your place and they eat a lot, so they needs this much meat every week…”

“More or less, yeah,” Shigeru answered, while taking the basket loaded with meat from the counter.

“I mean… okay, it’s really good that you’re taking care of a friend, but why is it you the one who’s buying the food? I mean, don’t they have any money? Or job?”

“His situation is… pretty complicated, to say the least.” Shigeru looked down. “He had a serious leg injury a while back, and I’m still working on healing it.”

“Wait, is it that bad?” Hajime seemed impressed.

Well, anyone would be impressed at it. Physical injuries had different degrees and had to be treated in a certain way according to their seriousness, even with magic. But still, the better the magus was, the faster the recovery could be. And Shigeru a was pretty good medic, so, for someone to require more than a week of his treatment meant something really serious. Something like, you-could-have-lost-your-leg kind of bad.

“Yeah, that bad. And I’m worried because… well… he’s not exactly the kind of person that gets a job easily. He has good strength and… that would be it?”

“Well… maybe, he could work here?” Hajime suggested.

“… Wait, really?”

“Yeah. I mean, we do need an extra pair of arms. And since it’s not the biggest store in town, he wouldn’t need to put too much pressure on his leg. How does that sound?”

Shigeru was rendered speechless as a big feeling of gratefulness rose from his chest. Working with Hajime would mean not only that Kentarou would have something to do apart from staying at home (and wrecking Shigeru’s couch cushions), but that he would also be able to start anew. Maybe? Shigeru couldn’t know. Kentarou was… difficult. Shigeru himself needed a day or two for Kentarou to finally start talking to him. And that was when Shigeru asked if his leg was hurting… and Shigeru had needed to pinch him quite a bit to force an answer to come out.

“I am, really, really grateful for the offer, Iwaizumi. But, I think I’ll need to consider it. And talk to my friend…”

“Sure thing. Tell me if he agrees.”

“You’re doing, seriously, a lot.”

“It’s nothing, really. I want to help, you know? You seem to be exhausted, recently, and you really deserve a break from all of your worries.”

“Thank you, really.”

And, with that, Shigeru left from Hajime’s store.

* * *

Later, that same day, Shigeru prepared a stew with multiple green vegetables and a portion of turkey meat. Shigeru had learned that making Kentarou eat vegetables was hard, therefor he had to mix them up with some other stuff. And this was the only time where Shigeru had agreed on one of Kentarou’s whims, because it was actually fun to make new recipes where the vegetables were mixed with everything.

Thankfully, Kentarou had agreed on these recipes; he even seemed happy with them. The day before, they had eaten something Shigeru had learned to prepare on a foreign land: a mixture of various meats, eggs, onions and mushrooms, all chopped in small pieces and packed in bread dough. You could eat them with the hands, and Kentarou had seemed particularly enthusiastic about the part where he didn’t need a fork and a knife to eat.

“What will we eat today?” Kentarou asked, while fidgeting with a little toy that Shigeru had bought for him.

“Turkey stew.”

“Oh, I really like turkey. Thank you.”

When it was done, both of them sat at the table and began to eat. Both of them were usually quiet while eating. Shigeru usually didn’t have much to say (and small talk had proven itself really awkward when attempted) and Kentarou was really reserved (the shortness of his dialogues was the cause of their inaptitude at small talk). Silence wasn’t uncomfortable, not at all. It was actually really… familiar and normal, for Shigeru to be like this, eating silently, just enjoying the food and the moment without the need to talk. That wasn’t bad.

But now, he needed to talk about something in particular.

“Kyoutani,” Shigeru started. “Would you be willing to start working at my friend’s grocery store?”

There wasn’t an immediate answer, but Shigeru knew for sure that Kentarou was thinking: he had suddenly stopped eating altogether.

“Yes, I would,” was his only answer.

“Really? Well, my friend Iwaizumi Hajime needs some help moving around some stuff in his shop, and he would be glad to have you there.”

“Should I start immediately?”

“No, no, not until your leg has healed completely. After that I’ll take you with him and he’ll explain everything to you.”

“Okay.”

That was… way easier than Shigeru thought it would be. He was… actually a bit frightened. Kentarou wasn’t usually that cooperative, if at all. He would get really annoyed whenever Shigeru scolded him about not eating his food. He also had a tendency to get too fidgety when Shigeru treated his wound, to the point of breaking some of his things. And he also liked going on runs at night when he should instead focus on healing his leg. And those were only some of the things Kentarou did. He was actually one hell of an unruly patient, probably the most difficult Shigeru had ever had. Really, he represented exactly the kind of patient Shigeru would never welcome in his house, and yet his stupid morals wouldn’t let him leave Kentarou in the hospital or out on his own luck.

So Kentarou collaborating for once was… refreshing, somehow. Kentarou collaborating. This could mean a really good thing! Maybe he actually meant to start again with everything and just be a productive member of society! What a change! ‘ _About time’_ , Shigeru thought to himself. And, during the rest of the evening, Shigeru couldn’t feel his mood drop in any way.

* * *

Kyoutani Kentarou was a special case.

Shigeru worked with lots of different people in the hospital. From drunks who got just a bit over the top with the wine, to people who were about to die from a stab wound in the chest. There were mothers giving birth. There were girls having their first blood. There were people with diseases like the flu or the green plague. With so much diversity among patients, Shigeru had thought he couldn’t get surprised anymore.

Until Kentarou happened, of course.

Tied up, gagged, lashed, stabbed, poisoned, cursed. Left for dead. That’s how Shigeru had first found him. What had originally been just walk through the forest had ended with him finding someone who had been so brutally attacked, that bile and tears had risen within Shigeru. A pool of blood and a pair of eyes desperately clinging to a thin thread of life were enough for Shigeru to ignore the sick feeling and intense cursing Kentarou had prompted in him and get to help him.

He was dangerous. A warrior, clinging desperately to life. Someone who would bite someone’s throat off if they were a threat. But Shigeru tried his best to made it clear that he was not a threat, that he meant to help.

But it wasn’t easy. Firstly, it had involved a lot of fighting (he had to thank Hajime for teaching Shigeru how to defend himself). Then, it had involved restraining Kentarou’s mobility with some green Spells he had borrowed from an acquaintance. In fact, it had involved a lot of stuff, but…

After three days of Shigeru taking care of him, Kentarou had stopped. He didn’t fight anymore. He didn’t glare aggressively at Shigeru. He just… let himself be healed. He told Shigeru his name. And after Shigeru had explained about how it’s much easier to deal with curses when you know what gave them origin, Kentarou explained how he had gotten so hurt.

He was an outcast. A pariah. His village had chased him down for being a cursed man. Something (Shigeru hadn’t asked for details, so he didn’t know exactly what) in his blood was forbidden from where he came from. And the people there had chanted all night for him to disappear. He had been attacked in multiple ways, and if it wasn’t for Shigeru, he would be dead right now.

Kentarou explained the details of the curses, the poison, the illnesses they had casted on him, and Shigeru worked restlessly for the rest of the week to heal Kentarou from all of those. And then, there was his leg, which was the worst part of everything. The wound was severe, and Kentarou had even lost all sensitivity there. Restoring it to what it had been once had been very difficult, even for Shigeru. It had taken time, patience, and a lot of energy.

But Kentarou cooperated. He drank what Shigeru told him to drink. He ate the food Shigeru prepared. And, except for the night runs, Kentarou took extreme care of not putting too much pressure on his leg.

With all that, just a couple of weeks after they’d first met Kentarou was walking without a problem again.

* * *

The next day, Kentarou walked to town with Shigeru in front of him. The streets weren’t too busy, but there was enough people for Kentarou to lower his head. It wasn’t a territory that he knew well, like the forest, and it was intimidating. Too many different and unknown things; the buildings, the streets, the animals, the smells, everything. It made Kentarou overwhelmed.

He had promised Shigeru to work with that friend of his. Well, it wasn’t a “promise,” but he couldn’t take it back. He had been Shigeru’s guest for a really long time. Shigeru had shared his food with him and taken care of his wounds. Overall, Shigeru seemed to be actually concerned about him, so Kentarou couldn’t just sit at his place doing nothing in return. Paying him back was the first of his priorities.

Arriving at the grocery store, Kentarou noticed the various items on display behind the front window. From bottled milk and fruit juices, to seeds and cereals in different labeled bags; pretty much everything someone would need in a kitchen. And, from what Shigeru had told him, here is where Shigeru got all the meat from. So there had to be meat too. Kentarou had to stop himself from thinking about food.

“Hey, Yahaba,” a man greeted from behind the front counter. “Is this your friend?” he asked, and pointed right at Kentarou.

Shigeru patted him on the back a couple of times and Kentarou straightened a little. “Hey there. Yep, his name is Kyoutani. He’s a bit… annoying at first, but you’ll be able to deal with him for sure!”

“Hey,” Kentarou glared at Shigeru. He was not annoying.

“Well, hello! I’m Iwaizumi Hajime. Thanks for lending us some help. And, Shigeru, don’t worry, I have to deal with Oikawa on a regular basis, no one’s more annoying than him.”

“True,” Shigeru answered.

The man (Iwaizumi Hajime) had black spiky hair, tan skin and his bulky arms gave away that he, most probably, wasn’t a magic user and dealt with everything with his own hands. Shigeru had told him that he needed help carrying around some stuff, but did he really?

“Alright so, I’m leaving to the hospital. Have fun, you two!” And with that, Shigeru left the store.

“Okay. So, first of all,” Hajime started, “I need some help with some crates at the back of the store. Come with me.”

Kentarou followed him. Behind the counter, there were two doors; one was made of thick dark wood and the other was painted in red. Hajime opened the red door, which seemed to be the back entrance of the store, and pointed at some crates with fruit in them. Kentarou knew quite well how strong he was, but he couldn’t… show too much of it, he knew. So he took only one of the crates, gripping it by both of its sides, and took it inside.

“Where do I put it?”

“In the freezer, there,” Hajime pointed at the dark door.

Kentarou stood still while Hajime opened the door. Or, to put it properly, he froze right where he was standing when he saw what Hajime could do.

Hajime used one hand to open the freezer doors, but that wasn’t the impressive part. The impressive part was that he was holding two full crates of apples with his free hand and that the weight didn’t seem to cause him any problem at all. He just walked inside, stacked the crates and went back outside, where Kentarou was just gaping like an idiot.

“Something wrong?” Hajime asked, a puzzled look on his face.

“Eh, uhm…” Kentarou stuttered. “You’re… pretty strong, apparently.”

“Hm? Oh, that. Yeah, I can lift a lot.”

Hajime seemed so natural about it that Kentarou felt a weight become a little more bearable. After putting down the crate in the freezer, he went back to the other crates and started taking more at once. Three crates at once with both arms. Hajime let out a whistle.

“Nice. You really are strong.”

Kentarou felt happy. Usually, people didn’t react like that when they knew he was actually that strong; they would get intimidated, actually. But as Hajime started taking more crates at once, Kentarou started doing so too. In the end, what usually took Hajime some good fourty minutes of moving crates ended up taking just half the time.

Hajime patted Kentarou on the back and praised how good his job had been. Kentarou could feel the energy flowing in his veins. It had been a while since he had been able to use his energy like that.

“Now, for the next thing: I have this big order of meat, but I need to attend the counter too. Can you be my butcher for today?”

Was he being asked to work with meat? Kentarou nodded so fast that he almost sprained his neck.

“Great. So, you’ll be at that table,” Hajime pointed at the table across the room, where a butcher knife could be seen. “You’ll chop the meat, remove the big chunks of fat off of it, and save some of the organ meats. I’ll bring you the basilisk.”

Wait… wait, what?

“A basilisk?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you sell basilisk meat in here?”

“Well, yeah. I go hunting each sunday. Taking down a basilisk means a lot of work, but each time I do get one it also implies getting a really good pay.”

 _So, basically,_ Kentarou thought, _this man is not only able to lift multiple fruit crates simultaneously, but he also regularly goes hunting and takes down basilisks to sell at his store. On top of that all, he talks about it like it was nothing… This man. Is. Amazing._

* * *

Out of all the things Shigeru could have expected (and that went from Hajime kicking out Kentarou from the store, to Kentarou scaring away clients, to something breaking, to the whole store literally bursting into flames), he never thought to find Kentarou and Hajime arm wrestling at the counter. And never would he have thought to see Kentarou losing to Hajime (okay, let’s be real, the last part wasn’t too unbelievable, but still).

“Um… you guys having fun?” Shigeru asked.

Neither of them answered, both too focused on their wrestling game to notice Shigeru had arrived. What was absurd was that he had rushed from the hospital to the store thinking the world’s end was seeing its origins here. But there they were, just guys being dudes.

Kentarou was struggling with all his might, but in the end, Hajime used some kind of hidden strength and put Kentarou’s hand down. It was a clear defeat. Kentarou seemed really exhausted, his face red with heat and exertion, and even Hajime seemed to have a thin sheen of sweat over his forehead.

“So, how many times did you defeat him?” Shigeru asked at Hajime.

“Uff, well, you know… a few times…” Hajime answered, between gasps.

“Eleven times.” Kentarou’s expression was a deadpan one, and his voice sounded utterly defeated.

“Hey, don’t just say it like that! You almost got me at the fourth one.”

Shigeru laughed under his breath, enjoying the sight. He didn’t expect things would go this well between the two of them.

“One day. I will defeat you,” Kentarou promised.

“That’s what I like to hear,” Hajime encouraged. “You’ll be back tomorrow to help again, right?”

“Yes, I will.”

“Thanks. And, Yahaba, I’ll be closing the store soon, so, anything you want?”

Okay, in sum this day basically included Kentarou (seemingly) doing well at his new job, Kentarou making a new friend (even though they bonded over their… muscles?), and nothing being as bad as Shigeru initially thought. Really, when he thought about it, even at the hospital things hadn’t been as messy as most days. In this case, Shigeru thought….

“If you have a really, really big steak, and some sweet potatoes, then give them to me.”

“Right away.”

When Kentarou looked right into Shigeru’s eyes there seemed to be stars in them.

 _‘I know, I know,’_ Shigeru thought, _‘you love grilled steak and sweet potato casserole. I know that.’_

* * *

From that moment, things went… in a really good direction.

Kentarou seemed quite happy about working with Hajime. He earned a really decent salary, got along really well with Hajime, sometimes he brought some special treats from the store, and even if he didn’t work at the counter and had minimal interactions with the clients (Hajime was really considerate with Kentarou’s shyness), he would bring some fun stories about how some of them were really weird.

Slowly, Kentarou opened up more and more to Shigeru. He would tell stories about housewives who just… needed so much stuff from the store. Like… so much. A special case was this silver-haired man (Sugawara Koushi, from what Kentarou had learned from Hajime) that would always talk about his wonderful husband and their beautiful children. Then, of course, he would start mentioning this really… really long list of things, from milk bottles for one of the youngest kids to ingredients for steamed meat buns for everyone. He was nice.

There was also a man that seemed to be barely twenty years old and who had a really beautiful face but a really obnoxious presence. The bard Oikawa Tooru would come from time to time and buy a couple of things from the store, but he always stayed a bit longer just to talk with Hajime. The one time that the bard tried to talk with Kentarou he almost bit Tooru; Hajime had patted Kentarou on the back with an approving nod of his head.

Shigeru would listen to Kentarou’s stories and share some of his own. Shigeru would share stories about patients who were just really scared of a bug bite, about those who tried to act like they didn’t feel pain but flinched at every small touch. Complains, complains, Shigeru always had something to complain about. It wasn’t his fault, though. Some people were just really annoying.

They would always both share at least one story at dinner time. Sometimes, they would be able to laugh at one particular case. Some other times, they would just stay silent after one of them had a shitty day.

It was nice, to be like this with Kentarou. To know this… side of him? This part of him where he would just… feel like a really, really good friend. It was nice. What he had met as a really aggressive, violent guy could actually be light-hearted and friendly. Overall, he was actually a nice guy to spend time with.

Yeah, it was nice.

* * *

Winter was a really hard season. Shigeru liked the snow and the festivals, but all that couldn’t hide the fact that winter was dangerous. Colder days meant much more illnesses and sick people to take care of. Longer nights meant that dark magic got to be stronger, and people cursed by demons became a common thing to see every winter in the hospital. The workload of white magi and medics increased exponentially during that time, which meant that they had to cast more and more energy. It was exhausting.

And for Shigeru, who was one of the strongest white magi in the hospital, it meant that his demand was up in the skies. Every winter he would just ask the gods if someone could just… increase his salary a bit because he really deserved a bit more for all that he did.

Once winter started his shifts started to become longer and longer, and now he couldn’t even go catch Kentarou to the store to walk home together. Shigeru would arrive late in the night, and thankfully Kentarou could cook a little by now, because Shigeru wouldn’t have enough time to cook something decent if he had to do everything by himself.

There was a moment where Shigeru couldn’t even go back home for a while. He was so occupied that he told Kentarou to stay by himself for a week or so, while he worked at the hospital and stayed overnight there. Kentarou agreed quite easily to be by himself. He knew how to cook for himself, and if he ran out of supplies he knew he could buy from the store where he worked at.

So Shigeru spent a week at the hospital. And you can imagine how that went.

Working day and night, napping for at least 15 minutes at any chance he had, attending lines and lines of patients, repeating the same lines of “On a scale from 1 to 10, how is your pain?”, “Did you eat something uncommon before getting this?”, “Now how exactly did your hand got pierced by three steel nails?”… Shigeru had so much to do and it was slowly becoming increasingly more annoying. He might as well scream his vocal chords off.

He was about to treat one more patient that night when one of his colleagues patted him on the shoulder. “Go back home and rest for tonight. I’ll take care of it,” she said with a soothing voice which, for a second, reminded Shigeru of his mother.

“But…”

“I’m not listening to any 'but’s. Go to sleep. You will die at this rate.”

He was about to argue with her, when he realized his own mouth was so exhausted from talking he couldn’t even articulate a clear sentence anymore. So he only nodded and picked up his stuff to go back home.

She was right, Shigeru reasoned, a good night’s sleep would help him. Also, he hadn’t seen Kentarou in days. Shigeru… missed him. A lot. And that was something, considering that in the first week being with him had been annoying as hell.

The full moon was high up in the sky, illuminating the path Shigeru walked on along with the countless stars above his head. Recently fallen snow reflected the moonlight intensely so Shigeru didn’t need to cast a Light spell to see where he walked. It was calm outside the hospital and the roads weren’t as crowded as they were in the morning. It was peaceful. If it wasn’t because it was very cold and all Shigeru craved was a warm and cozy bed he would have fallen asleep.

He walked for a while until he arrived home (sometimes he hated living at the border of the city, because it meant more walking, but the peace this place had was a good thing to remember). There was no light on in his house, so Shigeru figured Kentarou was probably asleep by now. That was good. He entered the house and thought to go straight to his room, but…

He heard a noise.

It was a low mumble. But it wasn’t like someone was talking, it was more like… suffocated noises of pain. And they were coming from the living room.

“Kyoutani?” he asked. Then he realized that it could be a thied or a killer or something and that he might be fucked.

Shigeru went to the main room nonetheless. And there, Shigeru saw a figure lying on the floor at the corner of the room. It was curled up on the floor and it made strangled noises that had Shigeru in a distressed state. He thought for a second that it was an animal, that somehow had gotten hurt, but… That wasn’t it.

“Kyoutani?” Shigeru asked again, kneeling closer to the figure.

 _“Don’t!”_ Kentarou shouted, and Shigeru took a step back.

The window was on the other side of the room so there wasn’t too much light where Kentarou was, meaning that Shigeru couldn’t see much. But Shigeru did distinguish the edges of Kentarou’s body. His hands… or, rather, claws. His… paws, instead of his feet. His ears… so wolf-like…

“Don’t… come… any closer…” Kentarou growled, baring his fangs at Shigeru.

Shigeru needed to confirm, so he opened his palm and murmured a spell. A little spark shone brightly in the room, but not bright enough to hurt. And that was all he needed.

Kyoutani Kentarou was curled up in the floor, black claws digging into his arms, which were covered in fur. Something was curled around his legs that Shigeru had never seen: a tail with its fur severely damaged. His legs that ended with paws. His ears weren’t human at all. And the most striking thing were… those amber eyes shining in the dark.

 _Werewolf._ Kentarou was… a werewolf. _A werewolf. A werewolf,_ Shigeru repeated over and over, trying desperately to convince himself of what he was watching.

“G..” Kentarou started. “…to your room. Lock… the door. Now!” Kentarou ordered in a strained voice–or… was he begging?

_An outcast. Driven out of his town. Harmed, cursed, poisoned, left for dead. One with a strength unmatched by any man. A werewolf…_

Suddenly, multiple things clicked into Shigeru’s mind and he became unable to move. In front of him was one who had been cursed by the moon with a curse that could not be countered by white magic. It was natural, something that had been sealed into him since the day he was born. It was nothing cast by men, nothing the demons could create. It was only a matter of being. He was a werewolf, a creature that could wreck entire cities and kill hundreds, all during the one night they were forced to reveal this part of their nature…

But also a creature that had to change their whole body into something they usually weren’t. That changed the shape of their bones, their skin, their muscles to adapt to their environment. Creatures that endured a hell of a pain…

Ignoring every warning, Shigeru kneeled again, extending his hand to reach out to Kentarou. But Kentarou moved out of his reach, and held himself against the wall.

“Didn’t you hear me?! Get out of here!!!” Kentarou shouted once more.

But Shigeru wouldn’t listen to anything right now because Kentarou was in pain, and since day one, he had been taking care of Kentarou to make sure that he wouldn’t bear any more pain.

“Yeah, like I’d leave you like this” Shigeru answered as he got closer, faster this time so Kentarou couldn’t avoid him anymore. He reached out with his hand…

And when he realized–there were teeth sinking into his skin. Those were long, sharp fangs, sinking into his wrist… And then he felt the blood begin to drip down his hand.

Shigeru swore out loud as he tried to remove his hand. But it wasn’t until Kentarou loosened his jaw that he was able of removing it.

There was a lot of blood. He covered his wrist with his palm, putting pressure onto the wound, and chanted under his breath a short Cure. Energy flowed from his chest and into his hand, and then it was flowing over his wrist. The blood felt hot, there was a ticklish sensation, and then the wound was closed.

But he didn’t care about a wound. He reached out again to Kentarou with his bloody hand, only to have Kentarou crawl away as much as he possibly could.

“I told you to go away!!! Don’t you see it?! I just bit you!!!” Kentarou’s voice resounded loudly in the room

There was pain in his voice. Kentarou tried to growl and intimidate Shigeru, but the sound came out broken. He tried to hide his face and the tears that he started to shed.

“I just.. bit you… I just… Go away… Please, go away…” He was _begging._

“Hey, hey,” Shigeru tried to console him. “I won’t go. I’m trying to help you here.”

“Go away! I just… harmed you…”

“It’s nothing! Look!” Shigeru showed him his hand. For a second he thought he should cast some Light for him to see, but then he realized Kentarou’s eyes must surely see in the dark. “See? You know I can heal my wounds!”

“Please… I don’t… want… to kill you…”

Shigeru stopped for a second. Those words could mean so much. Had Kentarou killed someone before? Had he gone through a bad transformation? There was nothing that could deny any of those two assumptions, but nothing to think that was exactly what had happened. One thing was sure: there was a reason why, in his village, Kentarou was discovered as a werewolf, and they threw him out because of it.

Werewolves were dangerous creatures. They weren’t preys that hunters would target, rather creatures that knights would slaughter without mercy. Werewolves were a threat to humans. They weren’t like magi; they couldn’t serve the world with their ability, they could just become ruthless killing machines that aimed at any human or beast’s throat…

Or at least that’s what all the books said.

Kentarou wasn’t like that. Kentarou wasn’t a monster. Right then he was… crying. He was utterly sobbing and begging for Shigeru to leave–because he didn’t want to hurt Shigeru anymore than he already had.

Was he scared, perhaps? Not only of harming Shigeru, but also of Shigeru casting him away?

“Hey, listen to me,” Shigeru started, this time keeping his distance. “You did bit me. But you could have aimed at my jugular vein and you didn’t. I don’t know what you did before, but now you restrained yourself from doing something worse, right?”

Kentarou didn’t answer.

“You don’t want to hurt me, right?”

Silently, Kentarou shook his head.

“Kyoutani, I know a way to ease your pain. If you come closer to me, I can help you.”

But Kentarou stayed still. He wouldn’t move.

He was scared. Kentarou probably feared that Shigeru would try to finish what the villagers weren’t able to do…

“I’ve been taking care of you since we met, right? I want to help you. I really do care about you. And I know you care about me enough not to harm me anymore. _I trust you,_ ” Shigeru spoke from the very core of his chest. It was like that. He didn’t know why, what had caused him to trust Kentarou, what in the world was telling him that Kentarou wouldn’t harm him anymore…

“… Can you trust _me_ now?”

Shigeru held his breath. He felt that, if he let it go, he would break his composure and make Kentarou go away again.

He didn’t want that.

“Just… come closer… Please,” He extended his arms, like offering a hug…

Little by little, Kentarou started moving. He slowly came closer to Shigeru. Closer, and closer. One step at a time. And when he was close enough Shigeru put a hand to his chest. Kentarou flinched… but didn’t move away from him.

“That’s it… good, good…” Shigeru muttered as his fingertips started shining with an ice blue tone.

Dispel was a kind of magic that would take the energy from within the body and cast it outside. Any kind of energy would work. For those with fever, Dispel would restore them to their original temperature. For those with insomnia, Dispel would make them sleepy in just a moment. And for those in pain, Dispel would remove the energy from the nerves, casting it out of the body and allowing it to relax.

Casting Dispel at Kentarou’s chest, Shigeru applied slow, constant energy, so the pain would smoothly go away from Kentarou’s body. He could feel how much there was to dispel. Kentarou was bearing an unmeasurable amount of pain.

But what hurt Shigeru the most was that this wasn’t the first time Kentarou had to deal with it. And that on previous occasions he probably had to deal with all of this… by himself…

Shigeru let out a sigh. And with it, a single tear ran down his face.

Kentarou seemed to panic for a moment, but before he could run away, Shigeru lowered his head to let it rest on Kentarou’s shoulder. Kentarou froze, like he didn’t know what to do…

But, as the pain slowly drifted away from his senses Kentarou began to relax too. And when Shigeru least expected it, Kentarou’s arms were around him, hugging him and making the gap between them smaller…

“Thank you,” Kentarou muttered.

Those were definitely tears what was running down Shigeru’s cheeks and dampening Kentarou’s shirt.

“You’re welcome…”

They stayed like that for a long while. And when the pain was no more the exhaustion overcame every single one of their senses.

They fell asleep next to each other, right on the floor.

* * *

“So, let me set this clear,” Shigeru started, with his usual _Stop-fucking-around-with-me_ voice, “Not only did I discover now that Kyoutani is a werewolf, but now I get to know that _you also are a werewolf_ , and not only that, _you knew_ about Kyoutani _this whole time_? And you didn’t even, like, talk about it for _weeks_?!”

Hajime let out an awkward chuckle, scratching the back of his head as he averted his gaze. “Sorry about that, really. I kind of needed to be sure,” he answered.

“How exactly did you need to be sure?!” Shigeru demanded.

“And how did you get to know in the first place?” Kentarou asked. He was astonished too.

“Well, whenever we meet one of our kind, something kind of rings. You feel like 'this person right here is not human.’ It’s like a gaydar, but instead of knowing that someone isn’t straight, you know that they’re the same as you. In this case, a werewolf.”

The comparison, for a second, made Shigeru mad. But then he remembered that most of his closest friends weren’t straight either, so he decided to shut his gay ass up.

“But you can’t be quite sure because your senses can be messed up. And it’s not like I’m going to get close to your neck to sniff you, so, I needed something else. And when you told me you absolutely couldn’t come to work the day the full moon would rise, I got the hint.”

“But, don’t you start changing quite early too?” Kentarou asked. “I mean… My transformation starts in the middle of the day.”

“There are ways of controlling it. I can teach you next month.”

This was too much. This was definitely too much to deal with. Shigeru never signed up for a part-wolf roommate. Neither for that roommate to become so close to another one of his friends.

Except he had absolutely signed up for it and now he was dealing with the consequences. _‘I swear I will never save someone from the forest again.’_ Except that he would, if a similar case happened in the future.

“So, now you two are buddy-bro-pals, friends for life, linked by the moon. I guess you’ll be alright today. I’m going to the hospital!” Shigeru excused himself.

“Wait!”

Shigeru had reached the door of the store but turned on his heel then. Kentarou was looking at him straight in the eye; he looked like he was looking for confidence to say something.

“Thank you. For yesterday.”

Shigeru could use a Dispel now too, because he could have sworn his ears were starting to heat up. What? Why? No, wait, there was a question that needed an answer…

“It was nothing. I’m glad you’re okay,” he answered right as he went out of the store.

* * *

Hajime stared at the whole scene with a lopsided grin on his face.

“You know, Kyoutani,” he started. “Mating season will start sooner than you think. Better be ready.”

 _“What!”_ Kentarou shouted, his face red as a tomato.

Hajime couldn’t help but laugh under his breath while Kentarou challenged him to an arm wrestling match again to ignore the whole situation.

 _‘Ah, young love. What an amazing thing,’_ Hajime thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading! It's my first time writing KyouHaba, actually, so, sorry if there's anything that doesn't seem too IC. I hope everyone enjoyed it, regardless!
> 
> If you would like to reblog it, [here is the tumblr post!](http://bittersweet-cocoa.tumblr.com/post/154910654026/winter-moon) A big thank you to my friend Clara who helped me with the edition (as always) and to the HQ!!SS mod, for giving us all the chance to make gifts! :'3 That said, thanks again for reading, and if you liked it, a kudo or a comment are much appreciated!


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